[Gaim-i18n] cultural erosion and OSS

[Clytie S. <cl...@ri...>]

On 17/03/2005, at 2:17 PM, Ambrose Li wrote:

> Well said, but I think cultural erosion via computing has been going
> on well before the Internet.

Sorry, didn't mean it only started then. I think the Net has increased=20=

it almost exponentially, though. :(

> Had Free Software been as popular twenty
> years ago as today (not that it's really that popular today...), the
> damage should have been much less.

The great thing about Free Software for places like Vietnam and China=20
is that we simply can't afford anything else. No matter how many dirty=20=

deals M$ makes with govt., how much it deliberately creates barriers=20
between platforms and programs, we are going to learn to use software=20
which we can afford, and which offers community support. OSS empowers=20
its users: and we need empowerment.
>
> (Had it been there 100 years ago with the current level of care about
> i18n, Chinese might have been spared being turned into a left-to-right
> language, too.  Maybe... or maybe not)

Hmm, then we would have been stuck with our Chinese script, and due to=20=

a little thousand-year discussion between our peoples, it wasn't a=20
popular choice... :)

from Clytie (vi-VN, team/nh=C3=B3m Gnome-vi)

Clytie Siddall--Renmark, in the Riverland of South Australia

=E1=BB=9E th=C3=A0nh ph=E1=BB=91 Renmark, t=E1=BA=A1i mi=E1=BB=81n s=C3=B4=
ng c=E1=BB=A7a Nam =C3=9Ac=